Single lumen catheter with separate tubes therein

Abstract

A catheter is provided that includes multiple passages within a catheter body. These passages are arranged in a way so as to maximize the usable space within the catheter body. More specifically, multiple tubes are positioned within a central lumen of the catheter. Both the tubes and the central lumen are used as passages for various functionality of the catheter, such as communication of air or fluids. By sharing the free space within the central lumen of the catheter, the flow area of this passage is maximized as compared with simply using an extruded lumen for each passage. Hence, the catheter can allow the addition of more passages than similarly sized prior art catheters.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 197,039 filed Oct. 24, 2008 entitled A Single Lumen Catheter with Separate Tubes Therein and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 197,041 filed Oct. 24, 2008 entitled A Catheter with an Integrated Pressure Sensor all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]During medical procedures, catheters are often inserted into various locations of a patient, such as vessels, ducts, and body cavities. Typically, these catheters are configured for treatment or diagnostic purposes such as pressure sensing, fluid delivery, stent delivery, and numerous other functions.[0003]While some catheters are configured for a single purpose, such as only fluid delivery, other catheters are configured for multiple functions. Often these multi-function catheters require multiple lumens in their interior to allow for their various functions. For example, one lum...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]In a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, a catheter is provided that includes multiple passages within a catheter body. These passages are arranged in a way so as to maximize the usable space within the catheter body. More specifically, multiple thin-walled tubes are positioned within a central lumen of the catheter. Both the tubes and the central lumen are used as passages for various functionality of the catheter, such as communication of air or fluids. By passing thin-wall tubes through the free space within the central lumen of the catheter, the total flow area of the catheter is maximized as compared with an extrusion with multiple lumens as the total cross section area of the tubes is less than the extruded walls they replace. Hence, the catheter can allow the addition of more passages than similarly sized prior art catheters.

Problems solved by technology

One drawback to such extruded multi-function catheters is that as additional lumens are added to a catheter, either the catheter diameter must be increased or the diameter of each lumen must be decreased, so as to accommodate the additional lumens.

Often, increasing the diameter of the catheter can decrease the performance of the catheter.

For example, catheters over a certain diameter may be difficult to insert or maneuver in particular areas of a body.

Similarly, decreasing the lumen size in a catheter can decrease performance of the lumen-related functionality.

Hence, the functionality of catheters is often limited to a relatively small number of features so as to balance these features with performance considerations.

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